


Lance

by leiascully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Eavesdropping, Gen, Pets, The X-Files Revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 13:38:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5165837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Nobody named Lance is trustworthy.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lance

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Revival  
> A/N: from a prompt on Tumblr.  
> Disclaimer: _The X-Files_ and all related characters are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox Studios. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

She was on the phone as he approached, her phone in one hand and the other arm crossed under her bust. “Yes,” she was saying, “yes, I’m looking forward to it. Yes, I’ll see you tonight.” She smiled. “Of course Lance will be there. See you tonight. Bye.”

She hung up as he strolled closer. 

“Big plans?” He nodded at the phone.

“This must be that government surveillance I’ve heard so much about,” she said dryly. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it isn’t polite to eavesdrop?”

“Probably,” he told her. “But it’s for your own protection. Nobody named Lance is trustworthy.”

She smirked. “You are, after all, the world’s foremost expert on trustworthiness.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed gravely. “Trust no one. Named Lance.”

“I see,” she said. “I think it might be too late for that.”

“Serious with this Lance character?” he asked, trying to pretend the bottom hadn’t dropped out of his stomach. 

“Well, he has moved in,” she said. 

“Quite a commitment,” Mulder told her.

“When it’s love at first sight, you know,” she said, her lips and her shoulders both tilting up. 

“Congratulations, Scully,” he said. Maybe this was what a heart attack felt like: ice in his veins, a tingling in his fingertips, and the urge to lie down and never get up.

“Mulder,” she said. “Lance is my cat. Monica is coming over for dinner tonight, and she likes to bring him catnip toys. I think she’s reliving her misspent youth.”

“Probably,” he said, because it was all he could get out.

“Breathe, Mulder,” she said. “I’m not doing mouth-to-mouth on you if you keel over because you can’t handle that I’ve got a cat.”

“I thought you were a dog person,” he managed. 

“No dogs allowed in my apartment,” she told him. “But Lance is basically a puppy with claws, so it works out.”

“Lance is a weird name for a cat,” he said.

She shrugged. “The shelter called him Lancelot and his littermates Arthur and Galahad. I didn’t figure there was any point in changing it. And he’s impossibly handsome and he keeps me warm at night, albeit by trying to sleep on my head.”

“Do you have pictures?” he asked weakly.

“Of course I do,” she told him. “But I’ve also got a case to work.” She shook her head, and he couldn’t tell if there was any fondness in it. “For a trained investigator, you’re certainly prone to letting your imagination run away with you. If someone important came into my life, I would tell you.”

“You would?” he asked.

“It’s the least I could do,” she said, already turning away. “We’ve got work to do.”


End file.
